Tancredo pushes immigration issue
By SCOTT BROOKS
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
Apr 22, 2007
Concord – Rep. Tom Tancredo is looking for a Republican he can get behind.

The Colorado congressman and longshot GOP presidential contender says he recently took some time out of his campaign schedule to do a little research on Fred Thompson, the TV actor and former U.S. senator who has hinted he, too, may seek the presidency.

"I could have gotten excited, really," Tancredo said of Thompson. So he looked up the former senator's views on immigration -- Tancredo's own signature issue -- and, more generally, "on life."

What he learned, he said, did not impress him.

"It sucks," Tancredo said.

A five-term congressman from Denver, Tancredo fiercely opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants. He wants to "cut off" the economic incentives that encourage immigration and says America must not become a multi-lingual nation.

Tancredo is trying to ride this platform to the White House. Yesterday, his campaign stopped in downtown Concord, where the candidate addressed about 25 members of the New Hampshire Young Republicans.

In more than 30 minutes, he talked of little other than immigration. Ultimately, he left without asking for anyone's vote.

"I don't know if you'll give me your vote. I hope that you will," he said. "But I ask you to do this: The people that do ask for your vote -- make sure you know where they stand, especially on this issue."

At this early stage in the contest, Tancredo is lagging among Republicans, both in polls and in fundraising. In Concord, he referred to a joke told on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," in which O'Brien rattled off the massive gobs of money raised by the leading Republican candidates so far this year.

"Mitt Romney announced he's raised $23 million. Rudy Giuliani said he's raised $15 million," O'Brien said. "And Congressman Tom Tancredo announced he's raised two children."

"Well, that is true," Tancredo said in his speech yesterday at the Barley House bar and restaurant.

Tancredo does not argue with pundits who call him a "single-issue candidate."

Yesterday, he called immigration "the most significant issue with which we can deal."

His position was formed 30 years ago, he said, when he was a teacher in a Colorado public school district. Colorado was early to adopt bilingual education, he said. Tancredo said the program quickly proved ineffective.

"It had nothing to do with education," he said. "It had everything to do with politics."

Young Republicans in the audience yesterday asked few questions. Several were already committed to other candidates.

Two men wore "Mitt '08" stickers on their sportcoats. One man, D.J. Bettencourt, of Salem, wore a McCain pin on his collar.

"Quite frankly, I don't think you can run a full-blown Presidential campaign on one issue," said Bettencourt, who is the group's vice chairman.

"I think he knows he's polling at zero percent," said Paul Smith, the group's outgoing secretary. "He's just doing what he can do to bring his issue to light."

Whether he wins or not, Tancredo said he hopes to influence the race.

One goal, he said, is to see New Hampshire voters pressure the other candidates to take a firm stance on immigration.

"Yeah, I want to influence them," he said of his opponents. "But it doesn't mean I'll drop out if they do."

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